Knot of the metaliferous mountains of
Guanaxuato and Zacatecas.
Latitude 21 3/4 to 22 degrees. Division of the Andes of Anahuac into
three chains:
Eastern chain (that of Potosi and Texas), continued by the Ozark and
Wisconsin mountains, as far as Lake Superior.
Central chain (of Durango, New Mexico and the Rocky Mountains),
sending on the north of the source of the river Platte (latitude 42
degrees) a branch (the Black hills) to north-east, widening greatly
between the parallels 46 and 50 degrees, and lowering progressively as
it approaches the mouth of Mackenzie River (latitude 68 degrees).
Western chain (of Cinaloa and Sonora). Linked by spurs to the maritime
Alps, or mountains of California.
We have yet no means of judging with precision the elevation of the
Andes south of the knot of the mountains of Loxa (south latitude 3
degrees 5), but we know that on the north of that knot the Cordilleras
rise five times higher than the majestic elevation of 2600 toises:
In the group of Quito, 0 to 2 degrees south latitude (Chimborazo,
Antisano, Cayambe, Cotopaxi, Collanes, Yliniza, Sangay, Tungurahua.)
In the group of Cundinamarca, latitude 4 3/4 degrees north (peak of
Tolima, north of the Andes of Quindiu).
In the group of Anahuac, from latitude 18 degrees 59 minutes to 19
degrees 12 minutes (Popocatepetl or the Great Volcano of Mexico, and
Peak of Orizaba). If we consider the maritime Alps or mountains of
California and New Norfolk, either as a continuation of the western
chain of Mexico, that of Sonora, or as being linked by spurs to the
central chain, that of the Rocky Mountains, we may add to the three
preceding groups:
The group of Russian America, from latitude 60 to 70 degrees (Mount
Saint Elias). Over an extent of 63 degrees of latitude, I know only
twelve summits of the Andes which reach the height of 2600 toises, and
consequently exceed by 140 toises, the height of Mont Blanc. Only
three of these twelve summits are situated north of the isthmus of
Panama.
2. INSULATED GROUP OF THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS OF SANTA MARTA.
In the enumeration of the different systems of mountains, I place this
group before the littoral chain of Venezuela, though the latter, being
a northern prolongation of the Cordillera of Cundinamarca, is
immediately linked with the chain of the Andes. The Sierra Nevado of
Santa Marta is encompassed within two divergent branches of the Andes,
that of Bogota, and that of the isthmus of Panama. It rises abruptly
like a fortified castle, amidst the plains extending from the gulf of
Darien, by the mouth of the Magdalena, to the lake of Maracaybo. The
old geographers erroneously considered this insulated group of
mountains covered with eternal snow, as the extremity of the high
Cordilleras of Chita and Pamplona. The loftiest ridge of the Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta is only three or four leagues in length from
east to west; it is bounded (at nine leagues distance from the coast)
by the meridians of the capes of San Diego and San Augustin. The
culminant points, called El Picacho and Horqueta, are near the western
border of the group; they are entirely separated from the peak of San
Lorenzo, also covered with eternal snow, but only four leagues distant
from the port of Santa Marta, towards the south-east. I saw this
latter peak from the heights that surrounded the village of Turbaco,
south of Carthagena. No precise measurement has hitherto given us the
height of the Sierra Nevada, which Dampier affirms to be one of the
highest mountains of the northern hemisphere. Calculations founded on
the maximum of distance at which the group is discerned at sea, give a
height of more than 3004 toises. That the group of the mountains of
Santa Marta is insulated is proved by the hot climate of the lands
(tierras calientes) that surround it. Low ridges and a succession of
hills indicate, perhaps, an ancient connection between the Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta on one side, by the Alto de las Minas, with the
phonolitic and granitic rocks of the Penon and Banca, and on the
other, by the Sierra de Perija, with the mountains of Chiliguana and
Ocana, which are the spurs of the eastern chain of the Andes of New
Grenada. In this latter chain, the febrifuge species of cinchona
(corollis hirsutis, staminibus inclusis) are found in the Sierra
Nevada de Merida; but the real cinchona, the most northern of South
America, is found in the temperate region of the Sierra Nevada de
Santa Marta.
3. LITTORAL CHAIN OF VENEZUELA.
This is the system of mountains the configuration and direction of
which have excited so powerful an influence on the cultivation and
commerce of the ancient Capitania General of Venezuela. It bears
different names, as the mountains of Coro, of Caracas, of the
Bergantin, of Barcelona, of Cumana, and of Paria; but all these names
belong to the same chain, of which the northern part runs along the
coast of the Caribbean Sea. This system of mountains, which is 160
leagues long,* is a prolongation of the eastern Cordillera of the
Andes of Cundinamarca. (* It is more than double the length of the
Pyrenees, from Cape Creux to the point of Figuera.) There is an
immediate connection of the littoral chain with the Andes, like that
of the Pyrenees with the mountains of Asturia and Galicia; it is not
the effect of transversal ridges, like the connection of the Pyrenees
with the Swiss Alps, by the Black Mountain and the Cevennes. The
points of junction are between Truxillo and the lake of Valencia.
The eastern chain of New Grenada stretches north-east by the Sierra
Nevada de Merida, as well as by the four Paramos of Timotes, Niquitao,
Bocono and Las Rosas, of which the absolute height cannot be less than
from 1400 to 1600 toises.
